Preliminary hearings underway in two 2011 murder trials

Hey there, time traveller!This article was published 2/7/2013 (1256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Preliminary hearings got underway this morning for two men charged in connection with two separate killings in 2011.

Shuyler Vanwissen is charged with first-degree murder for the May 14, 2011 stabbing death of Gina Swanson.

Swanson, a single mother to a then-seven-year-old girl, was found by her father, a retired police officer, inside her Edderton Avenue home in Fort Garry.

She had been bound and stabbed and a knife was recovered at the scene, sources close to the investigation said.

Vanwissen, then 26, was arrested inside a Toronto bagel shop August 12, 2011. Winnipeg Police said Vanwissen and Swanson did not know each other.

Vanwissen is originally from Toronto but was visiting his mother – who lived a block away from Swanson and knew the dead woman -- at the time of the killing.

The second case concerns the death of Harry Gegwetch on Nov. 12, 2011.

Darrell Walter Longclaws is charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of Gegwetch, a talented pow-wow dancer whose body was found by firefighters in a burning, vacant apartment building in the 300-block of Carlton Street.

Gegwetch was an alcoholic who was living on the street at the time of his death.